Einstein's Italian Mathematicians : Ricci, Levi-Civita, and the Birth of General Relativity, Paperback by Goodstein, Judith R., ISBN 1470428466, ISBN-13 9781470428464, Like New Used, Free shipping in the US An exchange of information between Italian Tullio Levi-Civita and Hungarian born Theodore Von Kâarmâan, based on mathematics by Italian Gregorio Ricci Curbastro, helped provide the mathematical background used by Albert Einstein in forming his general theory of relativity.